United Nations recognises three conservation projects as new World Restoration Flagships.

The United Nations has recognised three conservation projects as World Restoration Flagships, according to a press release issued by the United Nations Environment Program on 4 December 2025. World Restoration Flagships are projects intended to have large-scale and long-term impacts, held up as examples which embody the 10 Restoration Principles of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021–2030). World Restoration Flagships already cover an area of over 10 million km², an area larger than China.

The first new project recognised is the Shellfish Reef Building Program in Australia. This project, a partnership between the Nature Conservancy and the Australian Government, aims to restore reefs of Oysters and Mussels which were once found around much of the southern coast of Australia but which have been greatly depleted by over-harvesting, sedimentation and pollution.

Globefish amongst Mussels and restored shellfish reef in Dromana, Port Phillip Bay. Jarrod Boord/Streamline Media in Reef Builder (2024).

Since its inception in 2020, the Reef Builder Program has worked with local communities to restore reefs at thirteen locations along the southern coastline of Australia; it aims to restore 30% of Australia's original shellfish reefs by 2030. The project has generated over 425 jobs, and about US$10 million in income for over 50 small and medium sized businesses, as well as helping local communities to reconnect to nature and promote stewardship over the natural environment.

The second project recognised is the Respectful Returns Initiative in Canada, a partnership between Parks Canada and local and Indigenous communities, which aims to restore damaged rivers and streams in seven national parks along Canada’s Pacific and Atlantic coasts. 

Salmon being released into the Bay of Fundy as part of the Respectful Returns Initiative. Parks Canada.

Since its initiation in 2010, the Respectful Returns Initiative has restored over 650 km² of land and 228 km of waterways, created over 100 jobs, supported research projects by three universities, and formed partnerships with 32 local organisations and community groups. The Salmon population has increased at six of the seven locations where the Initiative works. The Initiative aims to both protect Salmon and to strengthen the connection between the population and their environment. 

The third project recognised is the Thicket Restoration Movement in South Africa, a collaboration uniting over 60 initiatives in Eastern and Western Cape provinces, which aims to restore over 8000 km² of indigenous subtropical thicket by 2030.

Replanting a Kuzuko Thicket in South Africa. AfriCarbon. 

These thickets serve as a grazing resource for both wild Mammals and livestock, particularly under drought conditions, which is an important consideration following the drought of 2023/4, which is the worst the region has suffered in over 100 years. It is a particularly important resource for threatened species such as Black Rhinoceros and African Bush Elephant, and is also a significant carbon reserve, with soils covered by thicket retaining notably more carbon than exposed soils. It is estimated that restoring these thickets sequesters around eight million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. The project is also predicted to directly create over 1000 jobs in rural communities, as well as improving the lives of around two million people.

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Magnitude 6.8 Earthquake beneath the Hubbard Glacier on the border between Alaska and Canada's Yukon Territory.

The Alaska Earthquake Centre recorded a Magnitude 6.8 Earthquake at a depth of 3 km, beneath the Hubbard Glacier on the border between Alaska and Canada's Yukon Territory, slightly after 11.40 am Alaskan Standard Time (slightly before 8.40 pm GMT) on Saturday 6 December 2025. Earthquakes Canada recorded the same event as a Magnitude 7.0 Earthquake at a depth of 10 km. There are no reports of any damage or casualties associated with this event, but people have reported feeling it over a wide area of eastern Alaska, the Yukon, British Colombia, and parts of Washington State.

The approximate location of the 6 December 2025 Hubbard Glacier Earthquake. USGS.

Alaska lies on the North American Plate, with the Pacific Plate underlying the ocean to the south. The Aleutian Trench runs along much of the south coast of Alaska, with the Pacific Plate being subducted beneath this and passing under Alaska as it sinks into the Earth. Off the coast of southeast Alaska the Pacific and North American Plates pass one-another horizontally, with the Pacific Plate moving northward and the North American to the south (a transform plate margin). This is not a smooth process, and the plates frequently stick together, then break apart as the pressure builds up, causing Earthquakes.

How the subduction of the Pacific Plate beneath the North American Plate fuels the volcanoes of Alaska. Alaska Volcano Observatory.

Witness accounts of quakes can help geologists to understand these events and the rock structures that cause them. If you felt this quake (or if you were in the area but did not, which is also useful information) you can report it to the United States Geological Survey here, or Earthquakes Canada here.

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Canada loses Measles-free status.

Canada has officially lost its Measles-free status, according to a press release issued by the Pan American Health Organization on 10 November 2025. The decision came following a meeting of the Measles, Rubella, and Congenital Rubella Syndrome Elimination Regional Monitoring and Re-Verification Commission in Mexico City between 4 and 7 November, which heard that the Measles Virus has been circulating in Canada for at least 12 months. This finding also ends the Measles-free status of the wider Americas region, the second time this has happened, despite the region being the first to gain such a status in 2016. The first loss was caused by an outbreak in Venezuela in 2018, with the region regaining Measles-free status in 2024.

The Measles, Rubella, and Congenital Rubella Syndrome Elimination Regional Monitoring and Re-Verification Commission heard that there have been 12 596 confirmed cases of Measles in the Americas between 1 January and 7 November 2025, with ten countries being affected. However, 95% of these cases have occurred in three countries, Canada, the United States, and Mexico. There have also been 28 recorded deaths due to the Virus, 23 in Mexico, three in the United States, and two in Canada.

There are still active outbreaks in six countries in the region,  Canada, Mexico, the United States, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Belize, mostly thought to be triggered by imported cases. Under-vaccinated communities have been particularly badly hit, with 89% of cases affecting unvaccinated people or people of unknown vaccination status. The most affected group are children under one year of age, with the second most affected group being children aged one-to-four.

The Canadian outbreak began in New Brunswick in October 2024, and has since spread to every province of Canada. As of November 2025 the disease is still circulating in four provinces, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan.

Measles is a human disease caused by a Virus in the Paramyxovirus family. The Virus infects the respiratory tract, then spreads throughout the body. It can lead to major epidemics with significant morbidity and mortality, especially among vulnerable people. Among young and malnourished children, pregnant women, and immunocompromised individuals, including those with HIV, cancer or treated with immunosuppressives, Measles can cause serious complications, including severe diarrhoea, blindness, encephalitis, pneumonia, and death.

Thin-section transmission electron micrograph revealing the ultrastructural appearance of a single Viron, of the Measles Virus. The measles Virus is a Paramyxovirus, of the genus Morbillivirus. It is 100-200 nm in diameter, with a core of single-stranded RNA, and is closely related to the Rinderpest and Canine Distemper Viruses. Two membrane envelope proteins are important in pathogenesis. They are the F (fusion) protein, which is responsible for fusion of virus and host cell membranes, viral penetration, and hemolysis, and the H (hemagglutinin) protein, which is responsible for adsorption of virus to cells. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Wikimedia Commons.

Transmission is primarily person-to-person by airborne respiratory droplets that disperse rapidly when an infected person coughs or sneezes. Transmission can also occur through direct contact with infected secretions. Transmission from asymptomatic exposed immune persons has not been demonstrated. The Virus remains contagious in the air or on contaminated surfaces for up to two hours. A patient is infectious from four days before the start of the rash to four days after its appearance. There is no specific antiviral treatment for Measles, but most people recover within 2-3 weeks.

An effective and safe vaccine is available for prevention and control. The Measles-containing-vaccine first-dose is given at the age of nine months, while the Measles-containing-vaccine second dose is given at the age of 15 months. A 95% population coverage of Measles-containing-vaccine first-dose and Measles-containing-vaccine second dose is required to stop measles circulation.

In areas with low vaccination coverage, epidemics typically occur every two to three years and usually last between two and three months. However, their duration varies according to population size, crowding, and the population’s immunity status.

Vaccination against Measles is estimated to have prevented more than six million deaths in the Americas over the past 25 years. However, it is estimated that in 2024 regional cover for the second dose of the vaccine had fallen to 79%, well below the 95% coverage thought necessary to prevent the disease circulating. It is estimated that only 31% of countries in the Americas Region achieved 95% coverage for the first dose of the Measles vaccine, and that only 25% reached that level for the second dose.

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Using drones to hunt for Lichens - as a way to find Dinosaur bones.

The progress of palaeontology as a science is reliant upon the discovery of new fossils, but this process is in itself often close to random. Palaeontologists can identify places they where believe fossils are likely to be found, but this is no guarantee of results, with success often more reliant on luck than science. Anecdotal evidence has suggested for some time that types of red Lichen grow preferentially on the bones of Vertebrates in the Dinosaur beds of western North America, but this has not previously been put to any actual scientific test.

In a paper published in the journal Current Biology on 3 November 2025, Brian Pickles of the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Reading, Caleb Brown of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Manitoba, and the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta, Sean Herridge-Berry of the Department of Geography and Environment and Institute for Geospatial Inquiry, Instruction and Innovation at the University of Lethbridge, Cameron Martin, Melissa Dergousoff, and Teri Gilmar, also of the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Reading, Phil Bell of the Palaeoscience Research Centre at the University of New England, and Derek Peddle, also of the Department of Geography and Environment and Institute for Geospatial Inquiry, Instruction and Innovation at the University of Lethbridge, present the results of a study in which they used drones to search for Dinosaur fossils by searching for pigments produced by Lichens.

Pickles et al. targeted three multi-taxic microfossil bonebeds within the Dinosaur Park Formation at exposures in Dinosaur Provincial Park, in Alberta, Canada. Within these beds, fossil bone made up between 2% and 6% of the total volume, which ironstone made up between 92% and 98%. The presence of two Lichens, Rusavskia elegans and Xanthomendoza trachyphylla, was found to be strongly correlated with the presence of bone, with no discernible correlation between Lichen presence and ironstone density. Lichen density appeared to correlate well with the amount of time bones had been exposed on the surface.

Lichen were found to be more reflective within the near-infrared to shortwave infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum (800–1400 nm), but less reflective in the blue part of the spectrum (400-500 nm) than substrates such as fossil bones, fossil teeth, ironstone, or sandstone, whereas the spectra of by fossil bone was not notably different from that of the surrounding sediment. 

Preferential colonisation of Dinosaur bones by Lichens with distinctive spectral profiles and their detection in drone images. (A) Photograph of mixed faunal bonebed (BB 209) in Dinosaur Provincial Park showing extensive Lichen colonisation of two exposed Hadrosaur limb bones (white arrows), but absent on surrounding sediment (2005). (B) Photograph of the Centrosaurus Bonebed (BB 43) in Dinosaur Provincial Park prior to excavation showing extensive Lichen colonisation of abundant surface-exposed Dinosaur bones (1979). (C) Spectral reflectance plot of major components of the Alberta badlands environment including rock substrates, Rusavskia elegans Lichen, and Vertebrate fossils. (D)–(F) Drone image of mixed faunal bonebed (BB23) in Dinosaur Provincial Park acquired at 30 m above ground; (E) and (F) are zoomed in with each pixel measuring ~2.5 x 2.5 cm and blue pixels in (F) indicating positive detection of Lichen-colonised fossil Dinosaur bones from the spectral classification. Pickles et al. (2025).

Pickles et al. were able to detect Lichen growing on Vertebrate fossils, primarily the bones of Ornithischian Dinosaurs, in images taken using a Remotely Piloted Aircraft System hovering 30 m above the ground, at which distance each pixel represented an area of 2.5 cm x 2.5 cm. The contrast between the Lichen and the background was sufficient to allow detection by an unsupervised algorithm.

Lichen was found to be most heavily concentrated upon the bones of large Ornithischian Dinosaurs, such as Hadrosaurs and Ceratopsids, and in particular on the large limb bones of these, although it was unclear whether this was a true ecological preference, due to the high porosity and large surface area of these bones, or a sampling bias brought about by the abundance of these bones compared to those of other Dinosaurs. Likewise, Lichen were found to grown more abundantly on the lower part of the exposure, but this was also where Dinosaur bones were most abundant. 

Pickles et al. suspect that the preference shown for Dinosaur bones by the Lichen reflects a preference for alkaline, calcareous substrates. They further believe that the porous nature of Dinosaur bones makes more of this substrate readily available, and note that the Lichen were not colonising teeth (other than the cementum of the tooth root), which have a similar chemical makeup to bone, but are denser and less porous. The also note that the more porous bone might be retaining more water than other exposed substrates in the Alberta badlands, which might be another factor promoting Lichen growth.

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An Early Cretaceous Plesiosaur from Ellesmere Island, Canada.

The Plesiosaurs were a group of Marine Reptiles which appeared in the Triassic and persisted till the End of the Cretaceous. The group obtained a global distribution during the Jurassic, when the supercontinent of Pangea broke up and high global temperatures led to large areas of the world's continents being submerged. However, towards the end of this period the situation had changed, when falling sealevels led to many ocean basins becoming isolated, many groups of large Marine Reptiles becoming extinct, and faunal communities becoming provincialized in different ocean basins. Plesiosaurs are not thought to have been strongly affected by the End Jurassic Extinction Event, but their fossil record is poor during the Early Cretaceous, limiting our understanding of the group during this interval.

In a paper published in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica on 2 December 2024, Lene Delsett of the Natural History Museum at the University of Oslo, adam Smith of Nottingham Natural History Museum, Stephen Ingrams of Llandudno, and Simon Schneider of the Cambridge Arctic Shelf Programme, describe a Plesiosaur from the Early Cretaceous Deer Bay Formation of Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic.

The specimen was excavated in 1952 by the Danish geologist Johannes Christian Troelsen, however, while he mentioned it in a report of his expedition to the area, it was never formally described. It was sent to the University of Copenhagen, where it appears to have undergone some preparation work by a student working under the supervision of curator Eigil Nielsen, and possibly subsequent curator Niels Bonde. The remains were subsequently packed into a series of wooden crates, one of which was opened and examined by Adam Smith in 2005. This box were subsequently misplaced, possibly during the flooding which affected the museum in 2011, but was subsequently relocated by curators Bent Lindow and Arden Bashfortht, and its contents transferred to a draw s in the main fossil Vertebrate collection. Two further crates, labelled '“Reptile Creek, Troelsen’s office' were discovered in 2019, and found to contain several girdle elements of the Plesiosaur specimen. Another box was discovered in the collections of the Zoological Museum in 2020, containing what was labelled as part of a 'Scoresbysund Plesiosaur', but which clearly belong to the Elis Island specimen. Another box, labelled 'NHMD 189689' contained some fragmentary ribs which also appeared to belong to the Elis Island specimen, but in the absence of any documentation were not included in the study.

The surviving specimen comprises 22 non-consecutive vertebrae from the cervical, dorsal, and caudal regions, hundreds of rib fragments, partial girdle elements, all four propodials, and several distal limb elements. All these elements are worn, and the larger elements mostly fragmentary. Delsett et al. were able to assign the specimen to the Cryptoclidid genus Colymbosaurus, but, due to the fragmentary nature of the specimen and a limited amount of overlapping material with other specimens, were not able to determine whether it belonged to either of the two previously described species in the genus, or from a different, as yet undescribed species. 

Selected vertebrae of Plesiosaur Colymbosaurus sp. NHMD 189834 from Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada, upper Berriasian–lower Valanginian. (A) Cervical vertebra (centrum C), in articular (A₁), dorsal (A₂), ventral (A₃), and lateral (A₄) views. (B), (C) Pectoral vertebrae. (B) Centrum E in articular view. (C) Centrum D, in articular (C₁) and lateral (C₂) views. (D) Sacral? rib. (E)–(G) Dorsal vertebrae. (E) Centrum H, in articular (E₁) and lateral (E₂) views. (F) Centrum M (dorsal?) in articular view. (G) Centrum I in articular view. (H), (I) Caudal vertebrae. (H) Centrum O in articular view. (I) Centrum P in articular (I₁) and lateral (I₂) views. The letters used in the element names are written on the individual elements. Delsett et al. (2024).

Previous known specimens of Colymbosaurus spp. have been described from Spitsbergen, southern England and western Russia, so the Elis Island specimen represents a significant range expansion for the genus. The genus was therefore present in two separate ocean basins, the Boreal Arctic and Boreal Atlantic, which were connected by two seaways, one running between Norway and Greenland beneath the modern North Atlantic, and one in present day western Russia.

Map with Cryptoclidid occurrences in the Northern hemisphere. (1) Ellesmere Island; (2) Spitsbergen; (3) Great Britain; (4), (5) Russia. Delsett et al. (2024).

The Boreal Ocean during the Late Jurassic and Early Creraceous has been considered to have been an ecologically depleted environment, with most of the described fossils being Bivalves, Ammonites, and Belemnites. However, Cryptoclidid Pleisiosaurs were large, predatory Animals, reliant on Fish for at least part of their protein intake, which implies that these must also have been present. Delsett et al. suggest that, few deposits from this interval are noted for their fossil content, at least part of the apparent absence of many Animal groups may be because most studies of these deposits have concentrated on their stratigraphy rather than their faunal diversity, and therefore useful index fossils, such as shelled Molluscs tend to have been described, whereas less stratigraphically useful fossils, such as Plesiosaurs or Fish, may have been overlooked.

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